A New York City man, 68, and a Baltimore woman, 58, have been arrested on suspicion of a series of robberies targeting older, single women in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, police said.
Montgomery County police tracked Joseph Simms and Osia Higdon to their respective homes late last month, arresting them after one of their alleged victims was able to clearly identify the two in pictures, Montgomery County police said in charging documents.
That victim, a 56-year-old woman from Vienna, Va., encountered Higdon, who asked whether she had lost a purse in a Wheaton grocery store parking lot in late December. When the victim said no, Higdon pursued, pushing her into a car driven by Simms. Higdon took the woman’s purse containing more than $1,000 in jewelry and $500 cash.
The two then drove to a nearby bank, forced the woman from the car and demanded she provide her personal identification number. She gave a false number, causing the two to search for another automated teller machine, and when that didn’t work either, they returned the woman to the grocery store and told her they’d kill her if she called the police.
Police say that’s just one example of the duo’s work. Although Higdon is only currently charged with the Wheaton crime, she may be connected to crimes that Simms has already been charged with.
Simms has been accused of a November incident in which a 71-year-old Silver Spring woman was scammed out of a large amount of cash and jewelry, police said. In March he allegedly abducted a 42-year-old woman at gunpoint and forced her take cash out of an ATM.
But there are still several similar schemes police said they’re investigating that may be linked to the two, which could include a series of robberies targeting senior citizens in the Wheaton Glenmont area as well as Prince George’s County that have happened since September.
Anyone with information is asked to call Montgomery County police at 240-773-5530.
